A Stark Reminder - Pressley

23 September 2013 09:36

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City Boss On Defeat At Port Vale

Coventry City manager Steven Pressley has described Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Port Vale as a "stark reminder that a lot of hard work is ahead of the team.

Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Alan Poole, the City boss said after City went down to defeat in front of a big away following: “Expectation has been growing in the last few weeks. “But this was a stark reminder to everybody that we’re still a team in progress with a lot of hard work ahead of us.

“People were starting to talk about promotion, but I’ve never said that; with all that we’ve had to deal with, staying up and developing our young players is the priority – if we do that, it will have been a successful season

“As I’ve said on many occasions, it’s been a pleasure to work with these players and I’m disappointed we didn’t reach the standards we have set ourselves.

“This was a great opportunity for us to win a game on the road – in the first half we played really well, carried out all the things we’d been working on in training during the week but it was a role reversal in the second half when we were playing towards our own supporters. We lost the detail of what we’re working towards.

“I’ve been there as a defender myself – I know that when you’re in front away from home the temptation is to drop back because you want to protect the lead.

"But that’s the complete opposite of what we preach – were always talking about pushing and squeezing the game and keeping everybody in contact with each other.

“They’re a side who like to get the ball forward and get on to second balls. We’d worked very hard on that and we were very compact in the first half with the back four holding high lines.

"It was the completely the opposite in the second half because when we needed to show that steely mentality, carry out the things we work towards every day, we went too deep and that allowed them to get between us on knock-downs.

“There are many ways to win football matches; we’ve got our style and Port Vale have got theirs, and we can’t have any gripes about the result because they created a number of opportunities.

“I’m delighted with the way my players have responded in the past couple of months – we’ve made some huge strides but this shows that we can’t afford to get ahead of ourselves.

“I’m very disappointed for the fans, especially those who came to see us for the first time this season, but we’ll re-focus, get back to work, and make sure that, as a team, we can cope with whatever gets thrown at us.”

Full story: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/match-reports/staying-up-still-priority-says-6079177